Machinery for planing rived staves



UNITED sTATEsA PATENT oFFioE.

HERvEr LAW, or WILMINGTQNNORTH CAROLINA.

MACHINERY FOR PLANING RIVED S'IAVESJl Specification of Letters Patent No. 5,792, dated September 193771848.

To all whom, t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HERVEY LAW, of Wilmington, in the county of New Hanover and State of North Carolina, haveA invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Apparatus for the Dressing of Staves for Barrels and other Vessels of a Like Description; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and eXact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which make a part of this specification.

My machine is so constructed as to dress the staves consecutively on both sides, andj to adapt itself to any inequality in the piecek to be dressed, whether winding or otherwise.y The undressed staves are to be placed one upon another in a trough, o-r hopper, the

floor of which is made to traverse back and forth, and is provided with a hook that is,

borne up by a spring in such manner as to cause it to catch hold of the rear end'of theI lowermost of the pile of undressed staves,

and to carry it forward toward the revolving cutters by which the dressing is to be effected.

In the operation of dressing it is first passed over a revolving cutter wheel, the"l cutters of which are convex in such degree as to adapt them to the curvature that is to be given to the inner side of the stave. Immediately above this cutter wheel there is a roller against which the stave is borne by means of four weighted levers; by which means it is dressed to an equal thickness as well as rendered concave on its lower side, the weighted levers being so arranged as to bear it up against the roller, irrespective of any inequality in the form of its sides.

From this cutter wheel the stave is carried forward, by means of holdfasts of a peculiar construction, and is made to pass under a second cutter wheel, the cutters of which have their edges concave, their form beingy such as to give tothe outer side of the stave that degree of convexity which is required.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1,'

is a side view of my machine; Fig. 2 a top view of it, and Fig. 3, a vertical section of it from end to end, through its middle.

A, A, is the frameof the machine. B, B, a trough, or hopper, in which the undressed staves are to be placed one above the other, and from which the lowermost stave is to be taken and carried forward toward the revolving cutter wheels.

la, a, ai, represent undressed staves contained within the trough B, B.

C, C, is a stationary floor, upon which thel pieces a, c, rest, beneath these is a-sliding floor, or follower C', C; this follower mayV as to catch hold on 'the rear end of the lowermost stave, and to carry it forward toward the cutting wheels.

This hook passes up through a slot or opening c, a',

along the middle of the stationary floor'A 7'From the fore end of the follower `the stave falls on to the ystationary bed of the machine at E, and at the neXt advanceof the follower it is carried forward by a hook,

or dog F, that is attached to said follower, Y

and, of course, traverses back and forth with it; c, o, are spring pieces that prevent the follower from carrying forward from the hopper more than one stave at a time. As the stave is carried forward by the dog F, it passes over the yupper ends of two 4y.

levers G, G, which are weighted at H,and is forced under the roller I, placed immediately above the cutter wheel J, the convex cutters of which dress the interior of thev stave, and Aalso reduce it to anequal thickness, the roller I, being adjustable vso as to As the stave en` ters under this roller` it bears upon 'the p' determine said thickness.

upper ends of the levers Gr, G, and raises the weights H, suiiioiently high to cause the stave to bear against the roller, and as the levers make pressure upon it, near its edges, they will adapt themselves to any. Awind, or twist in the stuff. As the fore end of the stave leaves the roller I, it comes into contact with two other bearingvpieces K, K, which are borne up againstk it by weighted levers L; the pieces K, K, concur with therleversG, G, kin pressing the stave against `the roller I, until the first dressingy is completed. i v

As the stave passes out from between the roller I, and the cutter wheel J, it entersy between two pairs of segmental toothed'holdforth with it.

fasts, M, and N ,theuppermost M, of which being suspended fall upon it by their own gravity, while thexlowermost are drawn against it by a spiral spring CZ, or by other adequate means. These hold-fastsare attached to an independent sliding rod O, O,

as are also similar hold-fasts P,L Q., inad- Vance of thern;the upper hold-fasts M, and-- Q, being attached Vto vertical arms B, and S, that risefrom `the rod 0, for the purpose of sustaining them.

of the machine which serve to guide them correctly back and forth. The rod O, is not connected directly with the follower which advances the staves from the trough B, but still moves forward with it, in the following manner.

The pinion U, which `engages with the rack V, is to be driven by any adequate cutters.

tion forward, the unclutching and clutching may be eected by the attendant, or Inechanically by the aid of projecting pins or buttons, in a manner well known, the clutch box being of the ordinary construction.y The follower is then drawn back bythe counteract-ing weight X, preparatory to the advancing of another stave, for which purpose the pinion is again clutched. VTo the follower C, C, is attached a sliding rod Y, Y, which, of course, moves back and dog, or hook to advance the stave toward a cutter wheel Z, the-hook or dog Z, is hung on a pivot allowing it to be depressed should it in its .retreat `be brought into contact with a stave that is passing over it.

When the rod Y, Y, advances, it pushes forward the rod O, 0, that carries the holdfasts, by means of a latch that temporarily connects the rods O', `and Y. When the latch that carries the rod O, forward is lifted, said rod, with its hold-fasts is made to slide back by means of a cord e, that has a weight f, attached to it, the cord passing over a pulley g, Fig. 2. In Fig. 4 I. have shown that part of the underside of the machine where the latch and its appendages are situated, say between the points wc, m, of

Fig. 2. `A latch l1., is affixed tothe rod O, O, and this falls on to the catch piece 2'., attached to the rod Y, Y; when the rod Y, Y, advances the rod O, O, with its hold-fasts,

will necessarily be carried with it, but when the taper end of the latch comes into con tact with a piece p attached to the frame of the machine, it will be lifted, andV the rodA p These vertical arms pass through slots T, T, in the frame This rod carries a second Z, which ylike the dog F, is

the hold-fasts be made to take a new `hold on the staves which they are to carry forward; the teeth on them being so formed as to allow theni to pass back readily, but toflay` hold on t-he stave when it is to be Y-advanced.

After a stave has'cleared the rst cutter wheel it s deposited on the bed of the machine forward of it, as at k, k, and it is to be then advanced toward the second cutter wheel, which is furnished with concave cutters. This wheel has below it a roller m, upon which the concave dressed side of the stove is to be borne down. An upright sliding piece n, passes freely through mortises on each side of the frame, each vof which sliding pieces carries a pressure roller o, that bears on the outer edges of the stave p, (Fig. 5)-, as it passes under the cutters, the slides being drawn down by weights g Fig. 5, is a transverse view of the slidesn, and their appendages. On the opposite side of the cutter wheel there may be like slides and pressure rollers; these are not shown in the drawing, it having been proposed to make another arrangement, as at 1", for the same purpose, but that described -is preferred. By means of the rollers 0, 0, the staves will be kept in contact with the roller m, notwithstanding any twist that may be in them. i i

The staves, it will be seen, are notto `be carried entirely through so as to free them from thecutters by the follower, but are by it left embraced vbetween the rollers, whence they are to be taken by the hold-fasts; the staves are not dependent therefore for their forward motion upon one of them being made to push another forward but are carried on independently of the follower, it being necessary that they should have free play to enable them to adapt themselves to the inequalities of form in split stud which end, under my arrangement, is effectually attained, the stave being lifted from the floor, and suspended as it were in the air, while being dressed. To prevent `any injurious deviation of the stave from its course as it passes along the machine, guide pieces t, t, t, maybe placed at different parts of its course. Y

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is not the general Inan-4 claim-f In combination with the cutter, rest and follower or any well known` mechanical equivalent thereof the separate supporting levers, G, G, and L, L, acted on by weights long since been done by others,--but' I I-I, I-I, one lever acting on each edge of the stave, to produce separate and inde endent pressures near the two edges hol ing ,it

v5,7972 l` g, Y

firmly against a single fixed piece or rest immediately opposite to the eut-ters but permitting all other parts of the stave however crooked, twisted or variable in thickness to pass free from constraint and at full liberty to take whatever movements lateral and vertical, its crooks and windings may require, whereby the dressing is allowed to follow the bendings and windings of the stave without cutting across the grain of the timber; and in combination with the parts above claimed,y I also'claim the segmental hold fasts M, N, and P Q, acting to draw the` stave from between the cutter wheel .Y and roller I and thereby prevent the irregu` 15 lar thinning away of its extremities; notintending in this claim to eonne myself tothe exact arrangement of parts herein described but to vary the same at pleasure while I attain the vsame ends by means sub. 20

W. R. JOHNSON, A. STEINMEKRS. 

